IBM’s New xSeries Server Lines – System x and PureSystem

The new sixth generation enterprise server lines of IBM’s X Series was announced sometime back. Named the System x and PureSystems, the X6 architecture helps organizations manage their cloud and analystics initiatives. The x6 System x models include System x3850 X6, System x3950 X6 and the Flex System x880.  With the recent sale to Lenovo, it will be interesting to see where the x series lands.

IBM states that the new servers will have the DIMM based flash storage option, which is the first. What’s more, the new hardware is supposed to have the eXFlash memory channel storage flash. The eXFlash plugs itself into the DIMM slots like RAM. However, it allows server processors to access ultra-fast flash storage and increases the application performance thanks to the low system write latency.

In fact, the lower latency can help improve efficiency and in turn, enterprise storage planning. There would be lower licensing costs as well as reduced storage costs for enterprises as there would be no need for external SAN/NAS storage units.

What’s more, this new xSeries enterprise server lines by IBM has a unique design that is compatible with different generations of CPUs. CAPEX is also reduced by a good 28% over IBM’s competitors and can support intensive business applications along with handling mission critical workloads. Users can thus scale up now and upgrade easily in future.